QGIS Integration MünsterLAND
Since the summer semester of 2025, the Professorship of Landscape Architecture of Regional Open Spaces has been offering a project-based course entitled ‘Introduction to QGIS in Landscape Architecture’ for sixth-semester students. The course covers the structure of the user interface, tools, key plug-ins, data management, and visualization methods, all of which are integrated into the design project.
In addition to the technical aspects of the program, the course focuses on its application in landscape architecture: How can legible regional maps be created that depict the actual structures of the landscapes and their spatial qualities, rather than relying on color and hatching to indicate content and focal points?
The final assignment is a brochure in which students apply the skills they have learned to create their own legible maps and analyses. In addition to the final result—the map—the process involving tools and printouts must be graphically documented to demonstrate the level of skills acquired.
Topics
Topics covered include, for example:
Working with digital elevation models (DEMs), e.g., topography
Filtering and reducing information, e.g., object categorization
Generating new information, e.g., area calculation
Mastering new tools for data analysis, e.g., grid tool
Topography
Using the Open Topography Downloader DEM plug-in, digital elevation models for a region can be downloaded. These models can be used to render the shading of the landscape and calculate precise contour lines at the desired intervals. Once the display and labeling settings have been adjusted, these layers can serve as an important foundation for the structural map of the design project.
Object Categorization
Official, georeferenced data can be downloaded from regional geoportals and imported into QGIS. The volume and size of the data are very large. To work with the data in a targeted manner and retrieve the information relevant to your own project, the data can be filtered and categorized accordingly. This is possible, for example, using the associated object type catalog. This catalog can be used to categorize building functions (1) and soil types (2).
Area Calculation
Using the field calculator, you can extract new information from the data that is relevant to your project. With the right formulas, you can calculate area measurements and display them in various units.
Grid Tool
In the grid layer, each cell can be assigned a specific attribute. To group larger areas together, the grid must be created at an appropriate scale. This tool can be used to group layers. Examples include analyzing the dominant land use type, commercial and mixed-use areas (1) as well as the size of the parcels (2).
